Growing up, my summers were often spent going on day, or occasional weekend trips with my grandparents to go fishing. These afternoons at various fishing ponds were often followed up with some cookies my grandma would bake for us while we were out. There are dozens of hilarious stores, great memories, and zero notable fish caught from these trips, but they did inspire my first short film. I wrote this project out last summer, and shot right before my Grandparents headed to Arizona for the fall and winter. I wanted to put it out a bit sooner, but have been so busy with client work and travel that I just couldn't find consistent time to really sit down and get into editing and colour.
Most of my film work to this point has either been advertising or interview/b-roll type stuff, and while I enjoy that, wanted to write my own short out and start exploring narrative work. I picked up the Black Magic Pocket Cam last summer (admittedly an impulse purchase), and it ended up getting used as a B cam on some of the filming we did for Peoria's tourism campaign. We were all pretty impressed by how well it handled some scenes, and how seamlessly it blended in with our RED footage. After that experience I decided I wanted to shoot an entire project with it, and really push it a little harder to see its limitations, and just get more familiar with the camera in general. Over all the writing/shooting process was a tremendous learning experience for me. It was a challenge to make the story work, keep it interesting, and give it the little bit of humor that my grandparents poses, with only 1 spoken line in the entire thing. I also directed and shot the whole thing, which can be challenging to keep your actors doing what you need while also being stuck behind the camera. Thanks to Jordan, Austin, and Rob for helping in various ways, and my Grandparents for bringing the story to life!